


Collide

by lil_bonsai



Category: Gintama
Genre: Angst, Domestic, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21832522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_bonsai/pseuds/lil_bonsai
Summary: In the dawn of the morning after a fight, Toshirou wonders how he and Gintoki came to be.
Relationships: Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki
Comments: 8
Kudos: 91





	Collide

It was barely morning when Toshirou awoke to the few, early birds chirping outside the house. The throbbing in his head that had accompanied him to sleep a few hours prior hadn’t left his side yet, and his body lay on a cold and hard surface. When his eyes opened and looked around the kitchen, which smelled of alcohol from last night, he noticed that the sun hadn’t even kissed the place good morning yet, and thus he understood that it was, as mentioned, barely morning, and he was barely waking.

As his fingers twiddled after a cigarette that lay next to him on the floor, right in front of a smashed bottle, Toshirou’s mind became tangled up in the reason he was sleeping in the kitchen in the first place. If he recalled correctly, at some point during late hours of the day that had passed, he and Gintoki, mostly Gintoki, had intended to celebrate the monthly income they had just earned at each their jobs, and Gintoki had ended up spending too much.

However unusual that was.

With multiple bottles of alcohol, he had greeted Toshirou at eleven in the evening from outside the entrance door with a silly, blushing smile on his face. Toshirou had of course accepted when Gintoki offered him some and things were sweet and blissful, and everything in between. Yet somehow in the midst of their drunkenly carefree and happy exchange of affection, Toshirou had advised Gintoki to take better care of his finances. And as partners go, a small accusation had evolved into a stupid, petty fight.

Like fire in a plain that hasn’t seen the rain in weeks, words of tenderness and teasing escalated into harsh and fierce accusations of why they were so poorly organized, why they were so nitpicky, why they were so negligent of important issues, why they were such a control-freak, why they were so unreasonably stubborn. And in the midst of the wildfire, they came to wonder how and why they had ended up staying in this house together for a year in the first place.

In an otherwise silent neighborhood, in an otherwise playful household, two bottles flew to the floor and hateful allegations chilled the mood that had been so warm just a few minutes ago.

Toshirou watched a puff of smoke dissolve in the light-deprived room as he vaguely recalled himself pushing Gintoki away and slamming the kitchen door shut in his face, refusing to sleep in the same room as him. As Toshirou sat up against the wall underneath the window, he admitted to himself that he was, as Gintoki had so accurately accused him of being, stubborn. Perhaps he was a control-freak as well, and nitpicky. Weren’t “nitpicky” and “stubborn” traits of a control-freak?

Toshirou took another drag of his cigarette, and sighed. Words spewn out in anger have been pent up for a long time, he remembered being told once.

_ Heh. _

Toshirou closed his eyes and tried to readjust his position to make the hard cushion more comfortable.

_ Especially when they’re drunk _ .

A few seconds later, or so it felt like, Toshirou opened his eyes to a pink light illuminating the room. The amount of birds chirping outside had multiplied, and his neck hurt from having been malpositioned from the last time his eyes were open. He looked at his wristwatch. It was still way too early to be awake.

His unfinished cigarette lay on the floor next to him. It had most probably fallen out of his mouth when he dipped off. Toshirou stared at it before looking at the closed sliding door on the other side of the room, and smiled faintly.

A feeling he hadn’t felt in ages appeared in his chest. It hurt.

Waking up alone hurt.

Not that he was used to smiling either, but smiling was somewhat easier than giving in to a heart that was beating a little faster, a little heavier, than normal.

And then, the sound of a sliding door somewhere else in the house made his heart beat even faster. Not a lot, but enough to make his fingers fidgety. As if afraid that perhaps the following footsteps in the hallway weren’t meant for him, Toshirou looked at the floor and closed his eyes. And just as fast as they had closed, they opened, for the door he had just been looking at slowly slid to the left and revealed bags under bloodshot eyes, and a silhouette of a figure with weighted shoulders leaning on the doorframe.

Neither of them looked at each other, yet somehow their eyes were still connected. Toshirou moved some inches to the right and made space for Gintoki, who was wearing a sleepless and silly smile on his fatigued face, to slide down next to him, and support his weight onto him.

Again, Toshirou asked himself how they ended up this way; A nitpicky, stubborn control-freak and a disorganized, negligent dimwit who was equally stubborn, had somehow found themselves colliding, and figured out that while they unquestionably did not understand the other, there were no other in this world who understood them better than each other.

Toshirou could hear the childish grin in Gintoki’s voice as he spoke.

“Morning.”

And Toshirou, with Gintoki's head resting on his shoulder, could only let his eyes glide shut once again, a hint of a smile playing in the corners of his mouth.

“Morning.”

**Author's Note:**

> In short, I was listening to "Collide" by Howie Day and decided to dedicate this song to this pairing.


End file.
